COMMENTATOR (COMM): Previously on Life...

SANKIE MTHEMBI-MAKANYELE: You look at the participation levels: it's the women. You look at the majority of the members of the saving schemes: they are women.

ROGER SHRIMPTON: Perhaps the most important thing is ensuring that all women are properly educated.

PATRICIA MATOLENGWE: We need to stand up, we need to organise ourselves; and start to be part and parcel of the economy of this country.

COMM: In this small village in the North of Ghana, things are changing in ways you wouldn't expect. The process begins by simply drawing lines in the dust. Pioneered by communities like this, it's a radical approach to learning that's taking root across the globe. It's villagers like Sanatu who are at the forefront of the movement. She's involved in Reflect, a participatory way of learning for adults. This film explores the impact on Sanatu's daily life.

SANATU (TRANSLATION): I have eight children. We live happily together with my husband, his two other wives and my mother-in-law. I'm a trader; I sell things like soap and cosmetics. Before I got involved with the Reflect group I felt out of touch with the world around me but now I'm learning so much.

COMM: The Reflect way of learning doesn't bring in textbooks from outside. Instead, everything's created by the participants themselves. Here they're drawing a chart on the ground to work out the difference between the way men and women spend their time.

ADAM (FACILITATOR) (TRANSLATION): How many hours are there from dawn to dusk?

COMM: Stones on the chart show the hour. The next two columns show what women and men are doing at that time of day.

ADAM (TRANSLATION): Can someone choose a symbol for women?

WOMAN IN WHITE SCARF (TRANSLATION): No - I don't want the brush to symbolise "woman"!

ADAM (TRANSLATION): Now we have two objects to represent "woman". Which one shall we use? This one? The wooden hoe symbolises "man" - do you agree? Which do you want to use to represent "man" on our chart? At seven am what do women do? What's that?

WOMAN IN PINK (TRANSLATION): It's a cooking pot

SANATU (TRANSLATION): Speaking out in front of men used to make me nervous but now I'm in the Reflect group I have more confidence in my own point of view.

COMM: Sanatu is one of the 900 million adults across the world who don't know how to read or write, who've been failed by conventional education. In contrast to most literacy classes for adults, Reflect takes a much broader view of learning, using the participants' own experience and knowledge as the starting-point.

MAN (TRANSLATION): At three o'clock, us men go to the mosque to pray.

COMM: In this Muslim village it's traditional for women and men to be segregated. It's a radical step for them even to sit together to study.

ADAM (TRANSLATION): What are the women doing at 3 o'clock?

MAN (TRANSLATION): The women are resting.

ADAM (TRANSLATION): Show us the hour when you rest.

WOMAN IN BLUE (TRANSLATION): No we're still working. This is a symbol of our work.

ADAM (TRANSLATION): So there are times when women are working and men are resting. Why is that?

2nd MAN (TRANSLATION): Us men deserve a rest - we grow the food, the women should cook it!

WOMAN W/BABY (TRANSLATION): The men could sweep their own areas?

WOMAN IN YELLOW (TRANSLATION): Why don't the men help collect firewood? It's tedious!

WOMAN IN PINK (TRANSLATION): I think men should join in all the chores: sweeping, fetching firewood, carrying water...

IRATE WOMAN (TRANSLATION): The men should come on their bicycles to fetch their lunch! When we walk to the fields in the rain carrying their food we can slip in the mud!

FLOWERY SHIRT MAN (TRANSLATION): But if men do women's work, it doesn't look right - people could laugh at us.

COMM: Fetching water has always been women's work in this village but the discussions in the Reflect group lead beyond words into action. Men can be seen doing tasks they'd never done before.

ASURO (TRANSLATION): If other people see me fetching water, they think it looks strange, but I don't let it bother me. In our community, we're becoming more aware, we're learning how to help our wives. If anyone sees me helping my wife at home they can't laugh at me.

SANATU (TRANSLATION): My husband and the other men in the Reflect group seem to be learning I see some changes starting. Sometimes he helps when we gather firewood or he takes care of the children.

ASURO (TRANSLATION): When they see a husband discussing things with his wife, some people say the man is hen-pecked. In my family we are changing - though I can't say all the neighbours think like us! Hurry up!

WOMAN (TRANSLATION): You shouldn't talk to me like that! This wood is heavy, I'm tired.

ASURO (TRANSLATION): I'm tired too. This is too much for me, it's women's work. After all I do you women still don't appreciate me - whatever I do, you still insult me and insult my ancestors!

WOMAN (TRANSLATION): You're right; whatever you do, I'll still insult you!

ASURO (TRANSLATION): I'm doing my best - can't you see I'm trying?

ADAM (TRANSLATION): Take a pen. Take a card. Start drawing.

COMM: Making a chart of men and women's workloads has a dual purpose. As well as changing ideas about whose job it is to carry all the water and fuel, the chart is used as a tool to teach literacy and numeracy. Learners copy the symbols they've put on the ground onto card and paper as a stepping-stone towards reading, writing and number work. They're learning how to handle a pen, and they're introduced to the principle that marks on paper can represent words and ideas. For Sanatu, studying numbers in the Reflect group has a direct impact on her work as a trader.

SANATU (TRANSLATION): I used to buy my goods from a middleman, and I didn't make much profit. Today I'm going to the wholesaler in town to find goods at a better price. I always had to ask my husband to buy school uniforms for the children but now I'm going to have money to buy them myself.

COMM: As there's no bus service from the village, Sanatu has calculated that the cheapest way to get to town is to share a taxi with other women going to market to sell their produce. Taking part in the Reflect group has given Sanatu the skills and confidence to go out of her village and buy direct from a wholesaler. Now she doesn't have to pay such high prices to travelling traders, she can make more of a profit herself when she sells her goods. And getting to grips with numbers is giving her more control over her business. In Sanatu's small village there's no shop: villagers rely on traders like her for anything they don't grow or make themselves.

SANATU (TRANSLATION): Come and buy!

MAN (TRANSLATION): How much are the pencils?

SANATU (TRANSLATION): A good price.

COMM: In Ghana, the Reflect group is part of a government adult education programme but Ghana is only one of sixty countries across the world where people are using the same approach to transform their lives. Here, in the Eastern Ghats of India, Reflect reappears in a very different context. The people who live in the ancient forest have started a group to fight for their land rights. They're adopting Reflect as a tool to help them resist the threats to their traditional livelihood. These indigenous people don't reject links with the outside world, but they treasure a rich storehouse of knowledge of wild plants and natural medicines, accumulated over thousands of years of hunting and gathering in the forest.

Every morning Balamma renews the mud floor of her home and her daughter decorates it with ash. Although the women create their daily artworks with ease, school is beyond their reach, and the written word is a mystery to 80% of the women in this part of India.

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): My name is Balamma, his name is Balraju.

BALRAJU (TRANSLATION): We had four daughters. One died and now we have three.

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): We're a poor family. We don't own any land; we live off the forest. How can we progress? Outsiders buy up our land, they're making money and we're left at the bottom of the heap. God doesn't help us; he seems to be on their side!

COMM: The villagers rely on their native forest for survival and harvest wild plants and grow food crops on the hills. But the arrival of commercial companies is disrupting this traditional balance. They put pressure on farmers to abandon their ancestral ways, and grow cash crops like cotton instead. They promise progress, but entering the cash economy is leaving many families hungrier than ever.

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): I don't know what to do. I've invested thousands of rupees in this cotton but the harvest is bad, the crop is failing. With all these pests, what will be left to harvest? They've eaten the whole thing. All my investment is going to waste. I don't know what to do, the crop is all eaten up.

BALRAJU (TRANSLATION): We lost everything. Who'll repay the loan?

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): The first year we made a good profit, on one acre we made three thousand rupees. But this year the whole crop failed.

COMM: Balamma's family isn't the only one to run into debt as a result of growing cash crops like cotton. The villagers come together to discuss the problem in a meeting known as a "Gotti". Gathering to talk in the Gotti is a practice going back many generations. What's new is that they're using the Reflect approach to make their discussions more concrete and more participatory. Here they build a chart on the ground to work out how farming cotton compares to growing traditional food crops.

SRENABABU (FACILITATOR) (TRANSLATION): Now we'll talk about cotton, our main crop. This is a cotton plant. How many of us grew cotton this year? Let's look at all the jobs we have to do to farm cotton

COMM: The Gotti also uses theatre to underline just how much extra work it takes to farm cotton. There are many ways to express yourself apart from words. Reflect borrows freely from local drama and music. The farmers act out all the stages of growing cotton, from ploughing to spraying and feeding.

SRENABABU (TRANSLATION): Now let's do some calculations. How much did you make from cotton this year?

FARMER (TRANSLATION): After I repaid all my loans I was left with a thousand rupees.

SRENABABU (TRANSLATION): Nine of your family worked so for seven months' work that's only 110 rupees each

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): We made a loss farming cotton, why should we plant it again? We had to borrow money to lease the land, and to buy pesticides. We worked hard for so many months for such a low return! All our efforts were wasted, we're left with nothing. So we've decided to stop growing cotton and start planting our traditional food crops again.

COMM: To grow traditional crops, farmers need a reliable supply of seeds. The Gotti has found a self-sufficient solution: a seed bank. For each kilo of seed Balamma borrows, she'll return two kilos after the harvest. Keeping the seed bank records uses new-found skills of reading and writing.

SRENABABU (TRANSLATION): We've been talking about cotton; this is how you write the word "cotton".

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): They said they would also teach us to read and write. I asked, why should I learn to read and write? What good would it do me? Learning new skills does help me communicate. So far my reading and writing aren't perfect but I'm learning to speak out and to ask questions. We used to run away when strangers came to the village, now we have the confidence to face them.

COMM: The written word becomes meaningful because it comes directly from the farmers' own active discussions of issues close to their hearts. Each Reflect group chooses its own words to study, adapting the techniques to whatever materials come to hand. A jigsaw puzzle made of the word "cotton" is a way to learn to recognise the shapes of letters.

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): I have already learned to write my name. I'm going to keep on learning.

BALRAJU (TRANSLATION): I also learned to write my name but I forgot. I have so much to do in the fields and sometimes I get fever and have to go home and sleep.

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): It's us women work hardest. He gets up in the morning, brushes his teeth and goes to the fields. I have to gather the firewood, decorate the floor, make the porridge and then take it to the field. We eat there and then we both work on the crops till three o'clock. When we come back home I don't sit down - I have more work to do. I have to clean the house, sweep up the chicken droppings, prepare the food. I cook, eat and then go to the Gotti to study. He's too lazy to come with me.

COMM: Making the link between the local and the international is one of the hallmarks of the Reflect approach. The Gotti uses community theatre to uncover the global story behind the pressure to grow cash crops. Company reps sing: "Plant cotton and you'll get rich, you can wear jeans like us instead of a loincloth!" It's a spoof television chat show, introducing some very special guests. Bringing the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation on stage, the play tackles the big issues of privatisation and globalisation.

CHAT-SHOW HOST (TRANSLATION): To see the world in our own hands we should import all the products they have in America, to sell at your village shop. Do you understand? Everything we eat - like rice, salt, chilli, tea, milk, he says we should buy them all from abroad.

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): This is about our lives. The actors are our own people. The play shows us what is really happening. I liked the scene with the television show, it showed how we are exploited and told us about the powerful people at the top. We shouldn't let ourselves be pushed around like this. If we lost this forest, we'd have nothing. If they privatised our forest we wouldn't even have a place to shit! We won't let them take these hills. If we hand over our forest we will lose our rights. Where would we go?

COMM: Through participating in Reflect she has opened her eyes to a new outlook on her world. She and her husband take part in a protest rally. People from villages scattered throughout the forest join forces to demand their indigenous rights. The new depth of understanding that Balamma has achieved at the Gotti sessions and her own emerging sense of self-confidence, spur her into action in a way she wouldn't have dreamed of in the past.

BALAMMA (TRANSLATION): I am from Kanatalabanda village. My name is Balamma. In the past I wasn't confident enough to come along to meetings like this. But we have a Gotti in our village now. Through the Gotti things have really started to change. Instead of being isolated with our problems, instead now we all sit together and analyse what is happening in our village and how we can work together to make changes. We share our joys and sorrows, we talk about things that matter in our lives and together we discover new solutions to our problems. I've told you what I know about my village, thank you. We have rights over our forest. We won't allow anyone to exploit us or push us out of the forest. You can't lift a heavy weight on your own - with one finger you can't lift anything. It takes all five fingers to lift something up.

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